Fight outside court during Liam Jurrah assault trial

Tensions boiled over outside the Alice Springs courthouse where former AFL player Liam Jurrah is being tried on assault charges.

Jurrah, 24, has pleaded not guilty to unlawfully causing serious harm to Basil Jurrah in an incident at an Alice Springs town camp.

As day three of the trial got under way, a fight erupted after several men who had been sitting in the court went outside and became involved in a confrontation with a man in a park adjacent to the building where the Northern Territory Supreme Court trial is being held.

A big group of people then started yelling at the man, who appeared to be verbally abusing them.

Three men then confronted the man and the fight spilled across the road.

Two men started to punch each other in the shadow of the courthouse sign.

Police officers moved in and the situation was quickly calmed.

Meanwhile, several key witnesses took to the stand today.

Jurrah's cousin, Ingrid White, completed her testimony after yesterday telling the court he had hit her on the head with a nulla nulla on the same night in March last year that he is alleged to have attacked and seriously injured his cousin Basil.

While Ms White's daughter Philomenia White told the Northern Territory Supreme court she saw Liam Jurrah hit Basil Jurrah twice on the head with a machete, her mother today admitted it had been an accident.

During cross examination, Ms White said it happened when she tried to step between him and another person.

Later, prosecution witness Bruno Wilson told the court in he had been pressured to lie in his statement to police.

Mr Wilson said he was at the town camp when fighting broke out, but lied in his statement when he said Jurrah was armed with a weapon and had attacked Basil Jurrah.

He told the jury he felt he had no choice but to lie about what had happened.

Another witness, Murray Woods, said he saw Jurrah chase his cousin Basil Jurrah around the house but didn't see what happened next.

So far the court has been told that the alleged assault of Basil Jurrah took place during a night of fighting between rival families at the Little Sisters town camp.

In his opening submission in the trial, Mr Tippet told the jury it must question the reliability of every witness because the event happened at night and many of the witnesses were drunk.